A Cold, Painful Task

I recently read “Effect of Brief Mindfulness Intervention on Tolerance and Distress of Pain Induced by Cold-Pressor Task” written by Xinghua Liu.

This article tested short term mindfulness meditation against distraction intervention on pain tolerance and pain intensity. The mindfulness intervention included increasing awareness to bodily sensations and objectively accepting these experiences. Mindfulness is accepting the pain rather than avoiding or fighting it. The distraction intervention, which in most studies is completing hard math problems, was imagining a happy scene. A distraction from the pain can lessen it. Surprisingly, there was no significant difference in pain tolerance and intensity between subjects who used the mindfulness method and those who used the distraction method. I was worried that, because mindfulness is negatively correlated with cravings and addiction and it is positively correlated with increased pain tolerance, addicts, who are not naturally mindful, will have a decreased pain tolerance. This article shows, however, that there are different ways to tolerate pain, distraction being just as effective as mindfulness. Even if the guided imaginings of the addicts are nothing like the process of meditation, I am interested to see if the repeated thought process involving addictions is similar to the distraction technique. It might be good to have a control group that uses the distraction technique in my project.

Additionally, I think I will use the Cold pressor test mentioned in this article to measure pain. The equipment is two plastic containers. One is filled with warm water that is 37 degrees Celsius and the other with cold water and ice that is kept around 2 degrees Celsius. To prevent the participants’ hands from touching the ice directly, the ice is wrapped in plastic and tucked away in a bottom corner of the container. First, the participants place one of their hands in the warm container for two minutes to establish a baseline temperature. Next, the participants move that same hand to the container that is cold. They simply keep their hand in the water until they cannot handle the pain anymore, in which case they remove their hand from the water. To prevent any damage to the hand, the maximum time limit is 5 minutes, but the participants are not told this. Immediately after the procedure, the participants rate their pain experience. This seems like a simple and effective design, and an overall good way to test what I am trying to measure.